This invention relates to an apparatus for placing in the ground two separate materials such as seed/fertilizer particularly but not exclusively for use in minimum tillage or direct drilling applications.
There is an increasing awareness of the need to conserve the dry land soil resource existing in the great plains area of the United States and Canada.
This includes the recognition that farm implements are required which permit the placing of fertilizer and various seeds in the soil, at their recommended depths and in an optimum relationship one to the other.
In the so called zero tillage system, there is also the need to be able to directly plant into the trash and residue from previous crops without any prior tillage taking place.
Many existing machines have been designed specifically to enable seed and fertilizer to be deposited in the soil under this system. Furthermore many of the machines have relied on a relatively heavy massive design to ensure the desired penetration into the unworked ground and this has meant relatively expensive and job specific machines having high energy demand during field first material, a packer wheel and operation.
During the past few years, the potential of utilizing cultivators, both heavy and light, as a seeding machine together with an air or gravity delivery system, has been attempted with a plurality of designs. The main problems which have been evident in these designs, are a lack of depth control and considerable difficulty in obtaining sufficient packing of soil around the seed. For this reason, multi-function machines have been designed which include a cultivator section, a seeding section, perhaps a harrowing section and finally a packing section. With the relatively wide machines now in popular use, this has meant an unwieldy arrangement of parts which are difficult to control and to set one relative to the other.
The rapid adoption of present technology relative to soil conservation techniques will require the availability of machines which initially may serve a dual purpose in order to enable a gradual transition to take place, from conventional relatively extensive tillage methods of farming to reduced or minimum tillage systems which of course will permit the operator the opportunity to test the new system with a small increase in their total capital cost.
It is a first object of the invention, therefore, to provide a planting apparatus for placing two separate materials such as seed and fertilizer in a single action which is simple, inexpensive and effective.
According to a first aspect of the invention, therefore, there is provided an apparatus for planting two different materials in the ground comprising a frame adapted for transport across the ground, means for cutting a furrow in the ground, means mounting the cutting means on the frame and arrange to cut a furrow in the ground as the frame is moved forwardly over the ground, a first tube, means for supplying a first material to the first tube, means mounting the first tube immediately rearwardly of the cutting means for depositing said fertilizer into the furrow, a second tube, means for supplying a second material to the second tube, means mounting the second tube rearwardly of the first and being free from means to form a second furrow separate from the furrow so that the second tube follows in the furrow formed by the cutting means and arranged such that the second tube is spaced from the first by a distance sufficient to allow soil to fall into the furrow therebetween as the tubes are moved along the furrow behind the cutting means and adapted to be able to deposit the second material at a different location in the furrow from the means mounting the packer wheel rearwardly of the second tube for following in the furrow behind the second tube.
The present seed/fertilizer placement system provides a soil working tool which causes a minimum disturbance of the soil in the seed row area and which will leave undisturbed, strips of soil between the seed rows. It will also allow optimum depth control and separation of seed and fertilizer depending upon the requirements.
According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatus for use in a planting operation comprising a frame adapted for transport across the ground, means for cutting a furrow in the ground, means mounting the cutting means on the frame and arrange to cut a furrow in the ground as the frame is moved forwardly over the ground, a packer wheel, means mounting the packer wheel for following in the furrow behind said cutting means and bearing means for rotationally supporting said packer wheel on said mounting means, said packer wheel being formed wholly from a plastics material.
With the foregoing in view, the other advantages as will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention relates as this specification proceeds, the invention is herein described by reference to the accompanying drawings form a part hereof, which includes a description of the best mode known to the applicant and of the preferred typical embodiment of the principles of the present invention, in which: